LAMOTTE DE SAINT-PAUL, PIERRE, captain commanding a company in the Carignan Salières regiment, regimental officer (1665–70).

Lamotte landed at Quebec in August 1665 and was given the task in the autumn of the same year of opening up a road from Fort Sainte-Thérèse to Fort Saint-Louis (Chambly).

In the spring of 1666 he was commissioned to build Fort Sainte-Anne on the island that bears his name (Lamotte), at the entrance to Lake Champlain. It was from there that the troops under Prouville de Tracy and Rémy de Courcelle set out in the autumn of 1666 on an expedition into the Mohawk country, in the region around Orange (Albany, N.Y.). The following winter Lamotte, whose position of command at Fort Sainte-Anne, the most exposed in the colony, required great bravery, had in addition to cope with an epidemic and famine which ravaged his garrison. Dollier* de Casson, who had come in haste from Ville-Marie (Montreal) at the risk of his life to help the victims, has left an account of those tragic days.

Towards the end of 1668 or in 1669 Lamotte de Saint-Paul became commandant of Montreal, succeeding Zacharie Dupuy. In an act drawn up at Montreal and dated 11 Aug. 1669 (at the baptism of his godson Pierre Le Ber*, the son of Jacques*, coseigneur of Senneville), Lamotte is described as commanding officer of the regiments in New France. He still bore this title in Abraham Bouat’s marriage contract in March 1670. This is the last mention of his stay in Canada. Benjamin Sulte declares that he left for France at the beginning of the summer of 1670. He did not come back.

In praising the officers of the Carignan-Salières regiment on 27 Oct. 1667, Talon wrote: “One above all, M. de la Motte, senior captain and commandant of the most advanced fort against the Iroquois, obliges me to single him out from the others and to ask you for a gratuity for him because of his wise and prudent conduct, which is accompanied by all the zeal that one can desire of a very good officer. . . .”

If it has been claimed that Lamotte de Saint-Paul was commandant of Fort Niagara in 1679, it was because he was confused with Dominique La Motte de Lucière. It was also believed that he died at Saint-François-du-Lac in 1690; he had been incorrectly identified with Louis de La Rue, Chevalier de La Motte, a lieutenant who was killed fighting the Indians.

We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Nous reconnaissons l’appui du gouvernement du Canada par l’entremise du ministère du Patrimoine canadien.